


Lucky Me

by grand_tano



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:47:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29049417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grand_tano/pseuds/grand_tano
Summary: you’re a new arrival in Alexandria. Rick Grimes is determined to help you make this place your home. set during the season 6 timeskip.
Relationships: Rick Grimes/Original Female Character(s), Rick Grimes/Reader, Rick Grimes/You
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

“You asked her the questions?” 

You jumped – your hand flew to the spot on your belt where your hunting knife was usually strapped, but it wasn’t there. 

Two hours ago, Aaron and Daryl had taken it, and your gun, and locked it in the trunk of a beat-up sedan, put you in the backseat, and promised Alexandria was just a two hour drive away. 

A few minutes before that, they’d saved your life. 

You were surrounded on all sides by walkers – there was no way out. You were psyching yourself up to put your gun to your head and get your inevitable death over with when you heard Daryl’s bike pull up – the sound got the attention of the dead, and Aaron had rushed through the crowd of them to get to you and ask you if you were alright. You told him you were, and you and these two strangers worked together to dispatch the small herd of walkers. 

They brought you out to the road, where they had a car, and explained that they were from a community, and that they wanted you to come back with them. They had been watching you for a little while now, to see if you were a good person, if you’d be a good fit, and they had decided that you were, and you would be. They asked if you wanted to come with, and without even giving yourself time to think about the possible risks, you’d agreed. Anything was better than one more night alone in the woods. Anything. 

Daryl had asked you three questions, and you’d answered them to his satisfaction. So they confiscated your weapons and supplies – “it’s not that we don’t want to trust you, it’s that we can’t yet,” Aaron had explained, and you had been understanding – and they brought you here, to Alexandria. 

Aaron had told you there were walls – you had imagined shorter ones. This place seemed impenetrable. The people shuffling around wore clean clothes, and they were chatting about trivial things – what to have for dinner that night, what time their shift started tomorrow. They seemed content. Like they were used to feeling safe. 

You decided at that moment, standing just inside the entry of this place with Aaron, Daryl, and the leader – you thought Daryl had mentioned his name was Rich or something – that you would do whatever you needed to make this work. 

“Yeah.” Daryl nodded. 

“You mind if I ask again?”

He was looking at you now. 

Rick Grimes could read you like a book – part of his past life as a cop. He could see that you were nervous, that you startled easy, that you weren’t used to being around this many people. He could see that you’d been having a rough go of it lately – the dirt caked on your skin and the blood under your fingernails were sure enough signs of that, though he could also see it in the apprehension on your face. He could also see that you were struck by Alexandria, and the safety that came with being inside its walls, and that you desperately wanted to stay and become a part of this place. 

Most of all? He could see that you were beautiful. Something about your eyes tugged at his heartstrings, and he yearned to see what you looked like when you were comfortable, when you felt safe, when you didn’t have your guard up. 

“Uh, sure.” you nodded. “S-sorry, you startled me.” 

“It’s alright.” he assured you. “How many walkers have you killed?” 

“I don’t know. A lot.” 

“How many people have you killed?” 

“Three.” 

“Why?” 

“Two got bit – swarmed. There was no way to save them, they were suffering. I shot them. It’s what I’d want someone to do for me.” 

Rick nodded. 

“And the third?” 

Andy had tried to kill you when you told him you shot Mary and Jacob. You had tried to explain to him that they were going to die anyway, that it was better to take a bullet to the forehead than to be eaten alive, but he hadn’t listened. He’d just waved his knife around, tried to stab you in the gut. So you’d shot him, too. 

“He tried to kill her.” Aaron interjected.

“We saw it go down.” Daryl nodded. 

“You guys were watching me that long?” you asked. 

“We were.” Aaron nodded. “We intended to extend an invitation to all four of you, but… well, unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.” 

“Well, I’m Rick Grimes. Welcome to Alexandria.” 

Rick, not Rich. You made a mental note. 

“Uh, thanks.” you replied. 

Rick noticed that you didn’t offer your own name – he chalked it up to nerves. He resolved to ask you later. He wanted to get to know you. He wanted you to get to know him. 

“We’ll get you set up with someplace to stay, and once you’ve had a chance to settle in, we’ll talk about assigning you a job. Everyone here contributes, it’s what makes this place work.” Rick said. 

“I’ll do anything.” you nodded dutifully. 

“C’mon, you’ll be staying in my spare room.” Aaron shouldered your backpack and grabbed your gun and knife, and started walking down the street, motioning for you to follow. 

Aaron’s house was down a street and around a corner, and a blonde man was sitting on the porch step, reading a book. When he saw Aaron approaching with you in tow, he shut his book and stood to greet you. 

“Ah, Aaron had mentioned we might be getting a houseguest. I’m Eric.” 

He extended a hand, and you shook it. 

Eric also noticed that you didn’t offer your own name – but he’d met plenty of new recruits to Alexandria, and he knew you’d share when you were ready. 

Aaron pressed a quick kiss to Eric’s cheek, and then led you inside and up the stairs. He opened the last door on the right to reveal a bedroom – you tried to think of the last time you slept in a bed, and determined it had been at least a year. 

“This is you. The bathroom’s the next door down, and the running water works, if you’d like to clean up.” Aaron said, and set your backpack down on the floor. 

“I can shower?” you asked. You weren’t quite sure if you believed him. 

“The water doesn’t exactly get hot, but yes.” Aaron cracked a smile at the look of disbelief on your face. “I’ll leave you to it. And I’ll see if I can find you some clean clothes.” 

\--

Your first real shower in… you couldn’t remember how long was lukewarm, and the water pressure was weak, but as far as you were concerned, it was the most luxurious experience of your life. The dirt caked on your skin pooled at your feet and trickled down the drain, and you must have stayed underneath the running water for an hour, just trying to remember what it felt like to be clean. You washed your hair three times, and you scrubbed your face until it felt raw. 

You dried off with a clean, fluffy towel, and wrapped it tightly around your chest and made your way back to the spare bedroom, where Aaron had left a few sets of clean clothes folded neatly on the bed. You chose an outfit from the pile, a pair of jeans that looked like they’d fit and a black t-shirt with white text that said “VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS,” and followed the sound of hushed voices and the smell of food cooking down to the kitchen. 

Eric stood over a pan on the stove, tending to something that smelled heavenly – or, at least, it smelled edible, you supposed your empty stomach might be causing some exaggeration on that front – and Aaron and Rick were seated at the dining table, talking about something. They paused their conversation when they saw you coming down the stairs, and they both smiled at you. 

Rick felt a pang in his chest – you were just as beautiful as you’d been at the gates, but the look in your eyes was still apprehensive. Your guard was still up. He understood, he’d been the same way – hell, he’d made everyone sleep in one room his first night in Alexandria – but he still felt this overwhelming need to see you truly comfortable. 

“I know it’s not exactly a mealtime, but Aaron told me you’d probably be hungry.” Eric said from the kitchen, and motioned to the pan in front of him. “You like spaghettios?” 

“I like anything that isn’t raw squirrel and acorns.” you nodded. 

Eric cracked a smile and scooped the whole can of pasta and tomato-adjacent sauce into a bowl and passed it to you. You thanked him softly and took your first real meal in days over to the dining table, where you sat down next to Aaron and dug in with your head down. 

“I’m very sorry about the rest of your group. We had every intention of bringing all of you here, we just wanted to watch you all a little longer. If we’d known what would happen, we would have approached you sooner.” Aaron said. 

“It’s alright.” you said, your voice quiet. “I get why you wait, why you watch people before you bring them here.” 

“The others in your group – did you know them before?” Rick asked. 

You shook your head no. 

Getting anything out of you was gonna be like pulling teeth, Rick realized. But he resolved to do the hard work of getting you to open up. Anything to see you comfortable, to see you smile. 

“How’d you meet them?” he asked. 

“I was staying in this police station. Brick building, security wire in the windows. Safest place I’d ever been, until now, I guess. They were outside, screaming, begging me to let them in – they said a herd was coming.” you explained. 

“So you let them in?” Rick encouraged. 

“I didn’t want to. I thought they might be lying to get me to let them in so they could kill me, take my stuff, use the police station as their camp. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if they were telling the truth and they died and it ended up being my fault.” 

“Were they telling the truth?” Rick asked. 

“Yeah. Herd came through, like, three minutes after I let them in.” you nodded. “We stuck together after that.” 

“Why’d you leave the police station?” Rick asked. 

All these questions were starting to make you feel antsy – this was the most you’d spoken to another person in a long time. But you took a deep breath and answered Rick. After all, he was the leader of this place, so withholding information from him wouldn’t exactly be a good look for you. 

“Ran out of food.” you shrugged. “We’d looted everything within a day’s walk. It was just... time to move on.” 

“Where’d you go after that?” he asked. 

“We were on the road for a while, looking for a new spot to hole up. Weren’t having much luck. We only stayed in one place for a few days at a time. We were on the road, looking for food, when Mary and Jacob got bit. Andy had gone up ahead to check out a convenience store, and when he came back, and Mary and Jacob weren’t with me, he jumped me. So I killed him.” 

Rick could see on your face that you were getting uncomfortable. Part of him wanted to keep prying, to learn everything he could about you, but he knew it would be best to let you alone, for the time being. So he nodded resolutely and made his next question his last.

“Any chance there were guns in that police station?” 

“Someone looted the armory before I ever found it.” you shook your head. “There was one gun left in the whole place.” 

“The one you had on you in the woods?” Aaron asked. 

You nodded. 

“Found it in a manila envelope with some loose bullets, taped to the bottom of one of the desks.” 

Rick blew some air out his nose in an almost-laugh – he knew a guy in the King County Sherriff’s Department who had kept a pistol tucked in between the seats of his police cruiser, and it wouldn’t have surprised him to learn that every police department in the country had one or two guns tucked away somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. Some cops had a bad habit of treating guns like security blankets.

“Thank you for telling me all that. I know it wasn’t easy. If you need anything at all, come tell me, I’m two doors down.” Rick said. 

You realized, then, that he hadn’t been asking you questions just to interrogate you – he genuinely cared about the answers, cared about you. He was trying to get to know you. You were a stranger in his community, and he wasn’t just trying to gauge whether he could trust you or whether you could be useful, he was trying to bring you into the fold. You weren’t quite ready to jump in with both feet, but you did feel your heart, and your cheeks, warm at the prospect of someone demonstrating genuine care for you. 

“Thanks.” you said, your voice quiet. 

Rick stood to leave – but before he could go, he realized he had one more question for you. 

“I almost forgot -- what’s your name?” 

You answered him. 

“But I always used to go by Lucky.” you said. 

“There’s a story there.” Rick cracked a smile. 

You nodded, a smile of your own playing on your lips. 

“You’ll have to tell me some time.” Rick said. 

You nodded again. 

“Two doors down, if you need anything.” he reminded you, and turned to go.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You tell Rick the story behind your nickname. Rick is falling for you, hard.

Aaron mentioned to you in passing the next evening that there was chocolate in the Alexandria’s pantry. He laughed at the look of surprise on your face, and told you where you could find the pantry, and that you should talk to Olivia. 

“We ration it pretty tightly, but since it’s your second day here, she’ll definitely give you some.” Aaron had told you. 

You made your way down the street and to the community pantry – a garage with shelves stocked with canned food and other non-perishables. You were marveling at the sheer amount of food in this place, when the door at the end of the room opened, and a woman with a clipboard came through. 

“Oh, you must be the new person!” she said, smiling kindly at you.

“You’re Olivia?” you asked. 

“Yes I am.” she nodded. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“You too, uh, Aaron told me there was chocolate here?” you cut to the chase quickly. You were much more interested in chocolate than small talk. 

“There is.” she smiled. “Would you like some?” 

“I can show her, Olivia.” 

You turned around to see Rick standing just outside, a small smile gracing his face. 

He hadn’t meant to follow you, he’d just been walking this direction when he saw you head for the pantry and… well, yeah, he’d followed you. Could you blame him? He hadn’t seen you since he left Aaron and Eric’s yesterday, and he’d been thinking about you ever since. He was dying to see how you were settling in. 

You hadn’t set foot outside Aaron and Eric’s house since you’d gotten here – you’d crashed pretty much immediately after dinner yesterday, and slept until mid-morning, and spent the day reading one of the books from Eric’s bookshelf and slowly-but-surely getting more comfortable with the feeling of not having to look over your shoulder constantly. You were by no means settled in yet, but at dinner tonight, Aaron had made a joke, and you had laughed. And that didn’t seem like a big deal, but you realized it was the first time you’d laughed in about a month. 

Neither of you knew it then, but if Rick had been there, if he’d seen the way your smile took over your face, the way your eyes and nose crinkled, the way you practically bloomed with happiness, his heart would’ve burst. 

“Oh! Sure! Just let me know what you take before you leave, hun.” Olivia smiled sweetly. 

Rick walked over to a large chest freezer and motioned for you to follow him – he opened the lid to reveal bags and containers full of frozen food. One bag contained about 10 foil-wrapped parcels, and the bag was labeled “1/4 BARS CHOCOLATE.” Rick was all but enchanted by the way your eyes lit up at the sight. 

“Tell you what, we usually only let people take a quarter bar at a time, but I’ll talk to Olivia, we’ll get you two – if you’ll tell me why you go by Lucky.” he smiled. 

“Deal.” you nodded. 

Rick laughed quietly and plucked two of the ¼ bars of chocolate from the bag and passed them to you – you clutched them in your hands like they’d run away if you loosened your grip. 

“I haven’t had any since before.” you said. “Never thought I’d see it again.”

“Well, is there anything else you want? I can’t make any promises, but,” he gestured around the room, “we’re pretty well stocked at the moment.” 

Rick wasn’t exactly sure why he’d just offered up the whole community pantry to you – after all, you were technically still a stranger – other than that he was chasing that twinkle he’d seen in your eyes when you spotted the chocolate. 

You hesitated – the list of foods you hadn’t had since before was a mile long, but you didn’t want to ask for too much. You didn’t want to come across as greedy or entitled, not that you possibly could have – you didn’t realize that you could have asked for the moon, and Rick would have nodded dutifully and started formulating a plan to pluck it from the sky for you. Nothing you could say would have struck him as anything other than perfectly reasonable. If it would make you smile, he’d go to any lengths to get it for you. 

You were peering around the room, trying to see if there was anything they had a clear excess of, anything you could take that wouldn’t be a burden, when your answer came to you. 

“Ice water.” you blurted. 

Rick cocked his head, and his smile widened. 

“Ice water?” 

“I haven’t seen an ice cube in a long time.” you nodded. 

It was true – for the past few years, all your water was gathered from streams and passed through makeshift filters and boiled, save for the occasional plastic bottle you managed to scavenge. And if they had a chest freezer to store food, you should be able to get a cold glass of water. 

“Well, today’s your lucky day, Lucky.” Rick chuckled. “C’mon, I’ll take you to my house.” 

He told Olivia you had two ¼ bars of chocolate and she scribbled it down on her clipboard, and then the two of you walked out to the street and started toward Rick’s house. 

The sun was setting, now – it turned the sky orange, pink, and purple, and it bathed the two of you in warm, golden light. Rick was staring, unable to tear his eyes from the way the light from the sunset reflected off your face, making you look warm and soft and idyllically beautiful, but you didn’t notice – you were too busy unwrapping one of the chocolate bars and snapping a piece off. It was still cold from the freezer, and it nearly brought a tear to your eye when it melted on your tongue. 

Rick was forced to tear his attention away from you when someone called his name – Tobin waved and said good evening. Tara and Denise greeted him as they walked past, Abraham tossed up a peace sign, Glenn and Maggie waved from their porch. 

“How many people live here, anyway?” you asked softly, peering around at all the people who were smiling and waving at their leader. 

“A lot. You don’t have to worry about meeting everyone until you’re settled in.” Rick assured you. 

You nodded – you had promised yourself you’d do anything it took to stay here, and if that meant making friends with the neighbors, you’d do it, but it calmed your fluttering heart to hear Rick say that. You were trying your best to be open, whether that meant answering Rick’s questions yesterday, or eating dinner with Aaron and Eric earlier tonight, or going to the community pantry by yourself today, but you weren’t exactly ready to walk up onto anyone’s porch and say “Hi! I’m Lucky! What’s your name?” 

“You know, when I first came here, they threw us a dinner party on our second night.” Rick said. 

“Oh, God.” you shuddered. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” Rick chuckled. “This is me.” 

He led you up the front steps and across the porch, into a front room that screamed “suburbia.” 

The houses in Alexandria were almost too nice -- it was the kind of neighborhood you never could have afforded before. It was the type of place that would have had an HOA and monthly block parties. But now that the world had ended, the most impressive thing about it was that Rick Grimes had ice cubes in his freezer. 

Rick’s house was quiet, save for the babbling of a baby – a little girl, couldn’t have been older than a year and a half, sat on the carpet, giggling at a teenage boy as he made funny faces at her. He wore a bandage over one eye, and he flashed a smile your way when he saw you come in the door. 

“Carl, this is Lucky, Lucky, my son, Carl, and my daughter, Judith.” Rick introduced you. 

“Good to meet you.” Carl waved from the floor and turned his attention back to his little sister. 

“C’mon, let’s get you that ice water.” 

Rick led you into the kitchen and motioned for you to take a seat at the kitchen island while he grabbed two glasses from a cabinet. He opened the freezer and grabbed an ice tray and twisted it with a harsh crack, and plucked a few ice cubes from the tray and dropped them into each glass. He filled the glasses with water from the tap – you were still getting used to the idea that the running water in this place worked – and passed one to you. 

“Thanks.” you said, and took a gulp from the glass. 

“That what you were after?” Rick asked, his tone a little teasing. 

“Yeah.” you smiled softly. 

Your eyes were softening again – Rick felt his heart soar. He thought he could get addicted to the feeling of making you smile. 

“So, tell me why you go by Lucky.” he said, and walked around the island to take a seat on the stool next to you. 

You took a deep breath. You were about to really open up to him – you wondered why you’d agreed to tell such a personal story in exchange for some extra chocolate. But Rick seemed to genuinely care about you, and your gut told you that you could trust him, and if nothing else, you were a woman of your word, so you started talking. 

“My dad was a barfly. But my mom worked. They couldn’t afford a babysitter, so he took me out with him some nights. Him and his buddies all played darts like it was their job, and mostly, he’d sit me down at the bar with a coloring book or something while they played. But one night, I was really upset, and I decided I didn’t want to color. I don’t even remember why; I probably just had a bad day at school. I was screaming, crying, yelling, anything to get my dad to pay attention to me, and finally, just to get me to shut up, my dad picked me up and put me on his shoulders while he played darts. He threw a nine-dart finish that night.” 

“Wow.” Rick nodded. 

“It was a total fluke, one-in-a-trillion type of thing. But every time he threw a bad game after that day, he said it was because he didn’t have his lucky charm. And I’ve been “Lucky” ever since.” you shrugged. “I thought my luck ran out when I killed Andy. But I guess not.” 

Rick cocked his head and kept his mouth shut, silently urging you to keep talking. 

“When Aaron told me about this place, I thought it was too good to be true. A part of me thought maybe… maybe he was tricking me. Maybe it was all a lie to get me in the backseat of his car so he could kill me, or worse.” you explained. 

“So why’d you go with him?” Rick asked. 

“Same reason I let Mary, Jacob, and Andy into that police station.” you shrugged. “I couldn’t risk passing him up if he was telling the truth.” 

“Well, you’re not here because of good luck.” Rick shook his head. “Aaron and Daryl, they watched you long enough to figure out that you’re a good person. That you’re a survivor, that you’re the type of person who could thrive here. You’re here because of who you are.” 

You felt your cheeks flush as a smile broke across your face. And any apprehension you’d been carrying about settling down in Alexandria melted away. You knew it wouldn’t be easy, and it wouldn’t be quick, but in a moment, you went from worrying about whether you could ever truly feel comfortable here to knowing that, someday, you would. 

Rick felt warmed from the inside out by your smile. He wondered if he’d ever get used to that feeling – he realized he didn’t want to get used to it. He wanted it to feel this new, this exciting, every time. 

“You ever play darts? Or did you just sit on your dad’s shoulders?” Rick asked, a little bit teasingly. 

“I play.” you replied, quirking an eyebrow. “Why?” 

“There’s a board up in Carl’s room.” Rick nodded his head toward the staircase. 

“It sounds like you’re challenging me, Rick.” you teased. 

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.” he nodded and smiled wide. 

“You’re on.” you nodded. 

“Carl, we’ll be upstairs.” Rick called into the living room. 

“Don’t touch any of my stuff!” Carl called back. 

Rick laughed and shook his head before leading you up the stairs and down the hall, to a room that clearly belonged to a teenage boy. Comic books were stacked up high in haphazard piles on every flat surface, the carpet was stained with mud tracked in on dirty shoes, and the walls were covered in pictures cut out of magazines and picture books. A dartboard hung on the wall next to the closet – it was surrounded by pinprick holes in the walls, and the darts were stuck haphazardly in the wall and the closet door. 

“Carl’s not very good at darts.” you quirked a brow and peered over your shoulder at Rick. 

“The kid’s only got one eye.” Rick chided you teasingly. 

You cracked a smile at that and approached the dartboard and began plucking darts from the wall. You held three in one hand, and passed three more to Rick. 

“You wanna go first?” you asked. 

“You go ahead.” Rick took a step back, and you stepped up to take your first throw. 

Triple 20. 

Rick heaved a sigh. 

“What?” you gave a small smile. 

“You’re gonna wipe the floor with me, aren’t you?” Rick chuckled, shaking his head. 

“Could’ve just been luck.” you shrugged, and turned your attention back to the board. 

Bullseye. 

“But maybe not.” you smiled. 

Rick laughed softly. Standing before him now, you looked comfortable. You were in your element. He hadn’t realized just how tense you’d been until he looked at you now, totally loose. 

“How old is Carl?” you asked, and tossed your third dart. Single 20. 

“Fifteen. Judith’s coming up on a year.” Rick answered. 

“Is their mom…” you wondered aloud, trailing off before you could ask what you were really wondering. 

“We lost her a long time ago.” Rick said softly. 

“I’m sorry.” you looked down at the carpet. 

“It’s alright.” Rick assured you. 

Rick was over Lori’s death – truly, he was – but he still got a pang of grief in his heart any time he pictured her face. He thought back to the day he found her and Carl in Atlanta – he remembered how full his heart felt, so full he swore it might pop. After she died, he had wondered if he’d ever feel that way again. He thought you might be his best chance at feeling like that again someday. You couldn’t replace Lori – no one could, he knew that – but you could become just as important to him as she had been. He felt sure in that moment that he could fall in love with you, if you gave him half a chance. 

You approached the dartboard and plucked your darts from it, and stood back to let Rick take his shots. 

He threw once, twice, three times in quick succession – Rick Grimes had many talents, but darts wasn’t one of them. 

“What did you do before?” you asked, just trying to change the subject. 

“I was a sheriff.” he answered you, and grabbed his darts and stood off to the side so you could take your turn. 

“That makes sense.” you smiled and nodded. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he smiled. 

“The way you look at people… it’s like, I can tell that you can tell when people are lying. Like you’re telling people they shouldn’t lie to you with your eyes. That’s a cop thing.” you explained and tossed a dart. 

“What did you do?” he asked. 

“I was a copy editor for a textbook publishing company.” you replied, and took your second throw. “I’ve read 12 different grade-school science textbooks cover-to-cover.” 

Rick pulled a face. 

“It was exactly as boring as you’d think.” you nodded and threw your third dart. 

You were throwing a pretty good game, and feeling pretty good – the best you’d felt in a long time. You felt relaxed, comfortable. So you looked over your shoulder as you walked toward the board to retrieve your darts, and you talked a little smack. 

“You just say the word and I’ll start going easy on you.” you smirked. 

Rick opened his mouth to say something clever back, but he was interrupted by a loud crash downstairs, and the sound of Judith crying. 

“What the hell was that?” you asked frantically, but Rick was already gone – he bolted from the room and descended the stairs in a panic. You followed him, thoughts of the worst possible outcome swimming around your head – had Judith pulled something heavy off a table and hurt herself? Had a walker gotten in somehow? Was Carl OK? 

You were relieved to see that the only thing wrong was a shattered glass. Carl was holding his sobbing baby sister and trying to kick the shards of broken glass together into a pile – he was swearing under his breath when he saw you and his father come down the stairs with panic in your eyes. 

“Everything’s alright,” he assured you, “I set her down on the table for a second to get some water and she kicked my hand and I dropped it.” 

“Oh, thank God.” you breathed and crossed the room in a few quick strides. “I can take her if you need.” 

Carl nodded and gingerly passed the baby girl to you – she was crying, probably because of the loud noise the glass made when it hit the floor, and you shushed her softly and wiped the tears from her cheeks. 

“Everything’s alright, Judith.” you said as calmly as you could. “You know, you shouldn’t kick your brother.”

“I’ve been trying to tell her that since she was born. She doesn’t listen.” Carl joked, and kneeled down to pick up the larger pieces of glass. 

You smiled at the teenager, and turned your attention back to the little girl. She was starting to calm down, now, and you grabbed a napkin off the counter to wipe away the tears and snot on her face. 

Rick felt like he was frozen in stasis. He knew he should go and help his son clean up the broken glass, or offer to take his daughter, or something, but he couldn’t have torn his eyes off you if he tried. You were holding his daughter, joking with his son – his heart was starting to fill up again, and the longer he stared at this perfect scene before him, the more full it felt.

Judith was looking up at you, now, with no tears in her eyes, just wonder. You pinched her tiny little cheek gently, and she smiled wide, drawing a smile out of you, too. 

“Wow, she really likes you.” Carl said, and deposited a few shards of glass in the trashcan. “Did you have kids before?” 

You shook your head no. 

“I always thought about adopting someday, but I never got around to it.” you shrugged. 

Oh, yeah, Rick’s got it bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> want to know more about Rick and Lucky? look out for chapter 3 here and on tumblr (grand-tano.tumblr.com), or send me an ask on tumblr with a prompt and I may write you a blurb!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you're starting to feel more settled in Alexandria. Rick and Daryl leave for a run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay with this fic! I got distracted by work and other fic ideas... I'm back into the swing of working on this one, though, so hopefully there won't be as much time between ch. 3 and 4 as there was between 2 and 3!!
> 
> keep an eye out for chapter 4 here and on tumblr (grand-tano.tumblr.com)!

You’d been in Alexandria for a little over a week, now – mostly, you passed the time reading books on Aaron and Eric’s couch. You’d made a dent in their bookshelf – if you kept up this pace, you’d have read every book they owned soon. You hadn’t even been a huge reader before, it was just a good way to pass the days without pushing yourself too far out of your comfort zone. You knew that, sooner or later, you’d have to start working, earning your keep, but for now, you were content to hole up with a good book and try to get used to the idea that you were safe. You pushed yourself by going for a walk every evening, and those walks usually ended on Rick’s porch, with a glass of ice water or lemonade or coffee, chatting about the goings-on in the community, or exchanging stories from before, or even just sitting in comfortable silence.

That’s where you were now, a glass of lemonade in hand, peoplewatching in peaceful silence on Rick Grimes’ porch. You could hear Carl tossing a tennis ball around inside – “Denise says it’s physical therapy,” he had insisted when you’d inquired about what in the world was that noise – and Judith was off with Gabriel, being fussed over by the Father and his congregation. She was basically being raised communally; in fact, you’d agreed to look after her for a day or two while Rick went on a run soon. He was supposed to leave tomorrow morning. 

You liked spending time with Rick. Him and his kids were the only people other than Aaron and Eric who you’d really gotten comfortable with yet. Though you had been wondering something…

You turned toward Rick and broke the comfortable silence. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Anything.” Rick nodded. 

“Those three questions you and Daryl asked me – do you ask everyone that?” 

“Everyone we’re thinking about bringing into the group.” he nodded. 

“Can I… What are your answers?” you asked. 

Rick smiled softly. 

“Ask me the questions.” he encouraged. 

“How many walkers have you killed?” 

“A lot. Hundreds.” 

“How many people have you killed?” 

“A lot.” 

You cocked your head. You’d been expecting a number, but he didn’t seem to have one for you. 

“Give me a ballpark.” you insisted. 

“More than 15, less than 50.” he shrugged. 

Whoa. OK, yeah, that was a lot.

“Why?” you asked. 

“They hurt me or my family, or they would have.” he explained. “I don’t take it lightly, but I don’t take chances either.” 

You turned that over in your mind. It made sense to you – but whether or not the reasoning was sound, learning that one of the only people you considered a friend had a body count in the double digits was jarring. 

“You’re a part of this place now. And we don’t bring people in unless we’re willing to fight for them.” Rick assured you. 

“You’d kill for me?” you asked, disbelieving. 

“I would.” he nodded. 

You expected to feel scared, alienated, all-around freaked out by the prospect of someone killing for you. But you found that you felt safe, protected. This wasn’t the same world it had been just a few years ago – no one was still around who hadn’t done things, drastic things, just to stay alive. And hearing Rick say confidently that he would take drastic measures to keep you safe was comforting. 

You reached out and squeezed his hand. 

“Me, too.” you nodded. “I’d kill for you, too.” 

\--

Rick was up early the next morning to get ready for the run. He and Daryl planned to leave just after sunrise, and hoped to be back by sundown the next day at the latest. You had agreed to look after Judith while they were gone. They’d packed a car with guns and some supplies the night before, so all there was to do now was pass Judith off to you, find Daryl, and hit the road. 

He was checking on the baby girl when you knocked on his front door – he came downstairs to see that Carl had answered it. 

“Good morning.” you smiled. “Your dad hasn’t left yet, has he?” 

“No, he’s still here. C’mon in.” Carl waved you inside. 

You stepped in to see Rick, standing at the bottom of the stairs, his finger to his lips in a shushing motion. 

“Judith’s still asleep.” he said softly. 

But then Daryl climbed the front steps to the porch and called out to Rick loudly through the open front door. 

“You ready to go?” 

Cue crying baby. 

You pushed past Rick to fly up the stairs to the little girl’s nursery. You scooped her out of her crib and held her to your hip, shushing her softly before heading back down the stairs, where Rick and Daryl were running through their lists one final time. 

“You’re gonna miss your dad, huh?” you said to Judith, and stroked her hair, trying to get her to calm down. “I’m gonna miss him, too. But he’s not gonna be gone for very long, I promise. And I’m gonna take good care of you.” 

Something about the image of you holding Judith got to Rick every single time you did it. He felt his heart ache in the best possible way – here was this woman he was already enamored with, this beautiful woman who he’d fallen for hard and fast, and who he fell for a little bit more each day, each time he learned something new about you – and here she was holding his child. It made it easy to picture you as a part of his family. 

“You got any last-minute requests, Lucky?” Daryl asked gruffly. 

“Huh?” you looked up from Judith, who was calming down slightly, her sobs exchanged for sniffles. 

“Anything we should keep an eye out for while we’re out there.” Daryl clarified. 

“Oh, no.” you shook your head. You didn’t exactly feel like you’d been here long enough to make requests just yet – you’d be grateful for just about anything they could bring back. 

“C’mon, there must be something you want.” Rick pressed, smiling at you rosily. 

“There’s really not.” you smiled. “You guys have given me everything I could have asked for just by taking me in.” 

Rick chuckled and shook his head. 

“If you happen across any good books…” you shrugged, still smiling wide. “I’ve almost read Eric’s whole library. It’s not high-priority, obviously, but…” 

“Yeah, it ain’t.” Daryl agreed shortly, and turned to leave. “But we’ll keep an eye out. C’mon, Rick, let’s hit the road.” 

Rick pulled his son into a quick hug before turning to you. He crossed the distance between you in a few long strides and kissed the top of Judith’s head softly, before meeting your eyes. You were smiling up at him, about to wish him good luck – but he took you by surprise, and leaned in to kiss your cheek. 

You felt your face flush with warmth and you knew you must be pink in the cheeks. Rick pulled away and tried not to smile too widely when he saw that you were blushing – he didn’t want to embarrass you, but the sight of you that happy tugged at his heartstrings. 

“Good luck.” you said, your voice soft. 

“I don’t know how much good luck I’ve got, I might have to borrow some of yours.” Rick joked, smiling wider now. 

“Oh, sure. Here.” you smiled and nodded. 

You pushed up onto your toes and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. Your soft lips were hot against the rough stubble of his cheek, and he immediately moved his face so that you were kissing his lips. You gasped softly and you felt him slip a hand behind your head, carding his fingers through the shorter hairs at the nape of your neck and holding you there firmly for a moment before letting go and pulling away from the kiss. 

Your heart was racing, and your pupils were blown out, and you knew you must look like a lovestruck teenager, but you didn’t care. You hadn’t realized just how badly you wanted Rick to kiss you until his lips were against your own. It felt right. You could hardly collect your thoughts, let alone gather yourself to speak, but you managed to stutter out a few words. 

“Y’think that’ll be enough luck to get you home safe?” 

Rick was smiling at you, his cheeks rosy and his eyes twinkling, and he was about to speak when – 

“C’mon, asshole, there’ll be time t’get a room when we get back.” Daryl called from outside the house. 

Your already flushed face went cherry red at that implication, and Rick rolled his eyes. 

“I guess I’d better go.” he sighed, though he was still smiling wide. 

“See you tomorrow?” you asked. 

“God, I hope so.” Rick smiled, and kissed your cheek one more time before turning to leave. 

\--

As babies went, Judith was very easy to take care of. She slept through the night, she calmed down quickly when she cried, and she was easily entertained. You spent nearly the whole first day Rick and Daryl were gone reading to her – the book you were reading today was a fantasy adventure about a knight who had to travel across a cursed land to find a legendary castle. At the end of the story, he makes it safely to the castle, where he falls in love with a princess and lives happily ever after. 

You tried not to indulge in the fantasy too much – after all, it was just a story, and its parallels to your life were all coincidence – but in your current lovestruck state, it was hard not to daydream about Rick as your knight in shining armor. 

In the time you spent in the woods alone, you had thought you might never meet another person, let alone make a friend, let alone fall for someone. But then Aaron and Daryl had burst through the trees and saved your life, and when they drove you through the front gates of Alexandria, they had opened your world back up. All of a sudden, anything was possible again. Rick had seen you, really seen you, and he had cared about you enough to give you the time and space you needed to get used to your new life, even though he would’ve been well within his rights to demand you start contributing on day one. You had come to think of him as a friend, mostly because you hadn’t been able to fathom having any stronger feelings for another person ever again – but then he’d kissed you, and it had felt right, like it was supposed to happen, and you realized that you cared about him way more than you’d ever cared about a friend before. 

Of course, the worst possible time to realize you had feelings for someone was right before they left for a dangerous, multi-day supply run. 

For every time your heart fluttered at the memory of Rick kissing you, you felt it hammer out of your chest at the thought of him entering a walker-infested building. You knew Rick was more than capable of handling just about anything this world could throw at him, but the part of your brain that had become cold and calculated, the piece of you that had become accustomed to survival and hardship, nagged at you with the possibility that he might not make it home. You did your best not to think about it, to focus your energy on taking care of Judith, but that was easier said than done. 

That night, you went to sleep in Rick’s bed – an arrangement you’d talked about beforehand, so that you’d be close by if Judith woke up crying in the middle of the night. His sheets smelled like whatever soap he’d managed to scavenge most recently (you thought you’d seen a bar of Irish Spring in the shower) and the sweat of a Virginia summer, and that easily could’ve been a bad thing, but it was so distinctly Rick that it just made you feel safe and comforted. And despite your anxiety about Rick being gone, you slept peacefully, enveloped in his sheets and breathing in the smell of him. 

When they weren’t back by sunset the next day like they’d said they would be, you slept a little worse that second night. 

On the third night, you didn’t sleep a wink.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick and Daryl come home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can find updates for Lucky Me here and on tumblr (grand-tano.tumblr.com)!

You were sitting on Rick’s couch, and you knew you looked like hell. There were heavy dark circles under your eyes from your lack of sleep, and you could hardly focus enough to look after Judith, let alone hear what Carl had just said. 

“Lucky?” he called out, grabbing your attention. 

“Huh? Sorry.” you rubbed your eyes. “Did you say something?” 

“I said he’ll be fine.” Carl repeated himself. “I’m sure that, whatever happened, Daryl and my dad are both alright. They’ll be back soon.” 

You wanted to believe him – really, you did – but you knew that with every moment they spent outside the walls, their chances got slimmer and slimmer. If they were gone another day or two, Alexandria would have to start facing the hard questions of whether or not to send more people out to look for them, and who to put in charge in the event that Rick was dead. 

But Carl seemed so confident that his father was capable of anything. You supposed he had a lifetime of proof that Rick was, in fact, capable of a hell of a lot. So you forced a pained smile and nodded at the boy, even though his reassurances had done little to quell the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. 

\--

You had just put Judith down for her afternoon nap, and you were resting in Rick’s bed, considering a nap of your own after you’d spent the whole night tossing and turning, when Carl called up the stairs from the front porch. 

“They’re opening the gates! They’re home!” 

Your heavy eyelids snapped open, and you nearly jumped out of your skin as your thoughts began to race. Was it really them? Were they really back? Were they OK? What if they were hurt? Every worst-case scenario flashed in your mind’s eye, and you felt sick to your stomach. 

Carl’s footsteps echoed down the hall as he bounded up the stairs and into his sister’s nursery, jolting her awake with a cry to bring her to see her dad for the first time in four days. You jumped out of bed and ran out to the hallway to see him, beaming with joy – clearly, he didn’t share your anxieties. He seemed sure his dad was alright. You wished you could borrow some of his optimism. 

Carl led you down the stairs and through the winding streets of Alexandria to the gates, where the car Daryl and Rick had left in was pulling in, followed closely by a small box truck, which sputtered and groaned before jolting to a stop as its driver cut the engine. The gates closed behind the two vehicles, and their drivers stepped out. 

Daryl had been behind the wheel of the car, which looked like it was stuffed full of supplies. And from the elevated front seat of the beat-up truck, Rick stepped down. 

Rick was searching the small crowd that had gathered to greet them, waving off concerned voices asking if he was alright and saying they were happy to see him as he looked for his family. After just a moment, he caught sight of Carl, holding Judith and jogging down the street toward him, with you close behind, and he felt a faint echo of that full-hearted love he’d felt in Atlanta. 

Carl made it to Rick first, and hugged his dad as tightly as he could without dropping his sister. Rick wrapped one arm around his son’s shoulders and squeezed, using his other hand to ruffle Judith’s hair as he kissed her face all over, causing her to dissolve into a fit of giggles. 

You stood back and allowed your racing heart to slow at the sight of Rick, alive and well. You felt your cheeks warm, and the first smile you hadn’t had to force in two days broke across your face. Relieved, happy tears pricked behind your eyes as you felt your worries wash away, replaced with rosy smiles and the excited chattering of Alexandria’s residents, happy to see their leader. The people around you had already started to unpack the car, bringing boxes to the pantry to sort through and inventory, and you knew you should offer to help, but you felt glued to your spot, unable to tear your gaze from the man in front of you, as if he were the Sun and you were a flower, basking in the glow of his smile, his warm eyes, and the knowledge that he was alive. 

Two weeks ago, you’d been reasonably certain you’d never meet another living human ever again. Now, you were reasonably certain you’d never cared about anyone as much as you cared about the Grimes family. 

“Lucky was really worried about you.” Carl’s voice cut through the din and brought you back down to Earth. 

Rick looked to you, now, and when his gaze met yours, you nearly tripped over yourself on your way to close the distance between you. Rick caught you by the shoulder, steadying you before pulling you into his tight embrace. You were clutching at his jacket, and it smelled like death and blood and sweat, but you didn’t care, because you were still basking in the comfort of his presence. Rick was holding you close, with one hand between your shoulder blades and the other at the small of your back, a silent reassurance that everything was alright, and you didn’t need to worry anymore. 

“What took you so long?” you breathed once he’d released you from the rib-crushing hug. 

“We got lucky.” he replied. 

You cocked your head, confused, and in lieu of a response, Rick simply nodded in the direction of the truck. 

Rosita had just managed to get the back door of the truck open, revealing its contents: boxes and boxes of canned food and non-perishables.

“We’re eatin’ good tonight, folks!” Abraham announced, holding a can of beans triumphantly in each hand. 

Everyone started helping to unload the truck, and with each box that came off, there were more and more murmurs of excitement. Three full boxes of canned food, a whole box of tinned nuts, some packets of what looked like homemade dried meat and fruit, the spoils were endless. 

“Where’d you find all this?” Rosita asked as she wiped the sweat off her brow. 

“It was some guy’s stash. Found ‘im dead in the driver’s seat, with this pinned to his shirt.” Daryl replied, and dug around in his pocket, producing a scrap of paper with a note on it. 

“Whoever can kill me once I’ve died can have my supplies. God bless.” Rosita read the note aloud. 

“It was parked in his driveway. The house was clean, but empty, seemed like he’d been livin’ there alone for a while. Must’ve got bit, didn’t want all this stuff to go to waste, so he loaded it up in the truck and left it up to the luck of the draw.” Rick explained. 

“Lucky us.” Rosita shrugged, smirking. 

“The truck’s pretty busted up, couldn’t get it to go over 20 miles per hour. That’s why it took us so long to get back.” Rick explained, turning to you. “I’m sorry we were gone so long.” 

“Oh, don’t apologize.” you shook your head and smiled, gesturing to the truck. “I think this is a pretty good excuse. But… if the house was empty, and all of this guy’s stuff was in the truck, then what’s in the boxes in the car?” 

“Some of it’s more food, other supplies we found along the way.” Rick said, and started leading you back over towards the car. 

“And the rest of it?” you asked, following. 

“Maggie, come look at this.” Rick called out. 

Maggie jogged over from where she’d been sorting through a box of canned food. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

Rick lifted a medium-sized cardboard box out of the trunk of the car and set it down on the ground. He knelt down in front of it and opened the top to reveal its contents: seed packets. Maggie’s face lit up at the sight and she immediately kneeled down across from Rick to start sifting through them. The packets all had pictures of different vegetables on them – carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, peas, cabbage, peppers… Rick had mentioned that Maggie wanted the community to start growing most of its own food, and this was a big first step in that direction.

“It’s not enough to start a farm or anything, but we can at least get a vegetable garden going.” Rick smiled. 

“Rick, it’s incredible!” Maggie beamed, and leaned over the box to hug Rick gratefully. 

“I thought you could teach Lucky a thing or two, have her help you with all this.” Rick said, looking between you and Maggie. 

You nodded eagerly – this seemed like a perfect way for you to contribute to Alexandria. You’d met Maggie a few times in passing, and between that and what you’d heard about her in the stories Rick had told you, you liked her. 

She was looking at you, now, with a glint in her eye and a smile on her lips. 

“You got a green thumb, Lucky?” she asked, her tone teasing, but very friendly. 

“Not sure.” you answered, smiling back at her. 

“I s’pose we’ll find out.” Maggie smiled, and then turned to pick up the box. “I’ll look through these tonight. We can get started planting the ones that are in season tomorrow morning.” 

You and Rick nodded, and she walked away with her box of seeds, looking very excited to spend her evening sorting vegetable seeds. 

“I’ve got one more surprise.” Rick said, once Maggie was gone. 

“Oh, yeah?” you asked, smiling warmly up at him. 

“Yeah.” he returned your warm smile, and motioned toward another box sitting in the trunk of the car. 

You reached for the box and opened the top to find that it was full of books. 

“You didn’t!” you gasped. “Where did you find these?” 

“That guy’s house wasn’t totally empty.” Rick smiled. 

You ran your fingers over a few of the spines – you recognized some of them, but the vast majority were books you’d never read, and your gratitude couldn’t have been overstated. You pictured Rick, in an otherwise-empty house, pulling books off a shelf and packing them carefully until the box was full. He had clearly done it for you, and the gesture was so sweet, you could hardly stand it. 

“Rick Grimes, I could kiss you.” you said, looking up at him with twinkling eyes and a wide smile. 

“Go ahead.” he teased gently. 

You laughed slightly at that, and took a step toward him and tilted your chin upwards and pressed your lips to his. He laid his palm flat against your cheek and sighed gently, appreciatively – he’d been looking forward to this since the moment the last kiss had ended. You smiled against his lips, and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. You clutched at the front of his jacket and tried to savor this moment, this feeling – your heart was fluttering and your breathing stuttered and you wished you could feel this way forever. 

“Ahem.” 

You and Rick jumped away from one another at the sound of Carl clearing his throat un-subtly. You were both blushing softly, and Rick reached up to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. 

“Judith needs to go back down for her nap.” Carl said, looking between the two of you and smiling mischievously. 

“Oh, yeah, she’d only been down for a few minutes when you guys got here.” you remembered, and walked over to Carl to take the baby girl. 

“Oh, c’mon, you took care of her the whole time I was gone. I’ll take her.” Rick insisted. 

“It’s really not any trouble.” you waved him off. 

Rick huffed out a chuckle and smiled at you softly, but reached out anyway. You passed the baby girl to him, and he took her gingerly. He stole a quick kiss before turning back towards his son, and the two of them walked back down the street to their house. You made your way back over to the car to attend to the box of books, but you overheard a little of their conversation before they were totally out of earshot. 

“I didn’t realize you saw us. I was gonna tell you about us as soon as I got back.” Rick said to his son. 

“It’s cool. Lucky’s great, and Judith likes her. So it makes sense. I’m happy for you.” Carl replied. 

Rick smiled at his son. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt a swell of pride in his chest at the mature young man Carl had grown into, and it wouldn’t be the last. 

You were smiling to yourself, too, as you lifted the box of books out of the trunk of the car and started walking back to Aaron and Eric’s house. Rick had said us, which had made your stomach do a little backflip with excitement. You felt like a teenager – it had been a long time since you’d felt safe enough to allow yourself to let someone in, let alone fall for someone, and you were falling hard.

**Author's Note:**

> want to know more about Rick and Lucky? look out for chapter 2 here and on tumblr (grand-tano.tumblr.com), or send me an ask on tumblr with a prompt and I may write you a blurb!


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